Benton's Gable Strickland (second from right) stands on the 113-pound podium at the Giant Center on Saturday.

By MARC MALKOSKIE

Press Enterprise Writer

(Written after Saturday, March 9)

HERSHEY — While many dreams come true on the floor of the Giant Center, several don’t get fulfilled, or at least are put on hold.

That’s the case for Benton’s Gable Strickland, who was one of three top-seeds to fall short of making the championship semifinals.

While some wrestlers in this scenario would mentally wave the white flag for the remainder of the tournament, Strickland battled back to place fifth at 113 for the second straight season with a 3-0 win over East Pennsboro’s Adam Jacob.

Instead of giving up and falling off the podium, the sophomore will more than likely be a rare four-time state medalist by March 2021.

“It does stink,” Benton coach BJ Wise said. “When you’re ranked No. 1 all year long, those guys want to impress their family, their school and their coaches. When they feel like they let someone down, it’s hard on them. But he did come back, he did place, and he’s only a sophomore, he has two more years. To be honest, not many people place four times in the state of Pennsylvania. It’s a short list. He’s not happy, but I’m happy he still came out and finished strong even being in the dumps.”

The sight of Strickland getting knocked off by Forest Hills’ Jackson Arrington, the eventual champion, in Friday morning’s quarterfinals was coincidentally an all-too-familiar sight for Wise, who found himself in a near-identical predicament as a Benton senior in 1999.

“(Strickland) wanted to win badly,” Wise said. “I was in that situation my senior year. I was also ranked No. 1 all year, lost in the quarterfinals just like him, wrestled back, lost again, and went for fifth and sixth. It is hard to do. Some of the Division I recruiters look for guys that lose early and bounce back and take third.”

Strickland wrestles East Pennsboro's Adam Jacob in the 113-pound fifth-place match.

As for Strickland, his still-impressive performance will rest as a disappointment in his eyes until next year’s state tournament.

“Basically, every day I’m going to wake up and realize I didn’t do as well as I should’ve,” Strickland said. “So it’s going to make me push harder and harder. Hopefully I’ll be standing on top next year.”

Even though Strickland lost a second bout in the consolation semifinals, it wasn’t because he gave up. The sophomore showed the maturity of a seasoned veteran to bounce back and stand as high on the podium as he did.

“At first it was hard, I wanted to go a lot further,” Strickland said on his mindset following his quarterfinal loss. “But I talked to my coaches and my relatives, and basically they told me, ‘It’s going to hurt for a while, but right now, you just have to let it go and battle back to get as high as you possibly can right now.’”

“He’ll get back in the wrestling room,” Wise said. “We’ll take a week or two off, and then go back to the grind. It’s what wrestlers do. He wants to get bigger, he wants to get stronger, he wants to get faster, and of course win that gold medal. And he has two years left to do it.”

Marc Malkoskie covers sports for the Press Enterprise. He may be reached at 570-387-1234, ext. 1338, or by email at sports@pressenterprise.net. Follow him on Twitter at @mmalkoskie.